williams



NJFETERS. FHOTO-LTHOGRAPHER. WASHINGTON D C 'UNITED srATEs g@PATEu'T oEEioE.

THOS. R. WILLIAMS, OF LONDON, ENGLAND.

MACHINERY FOR THE MANUEACTURE yOEs'IUI'rEs.IIT WHICH THE EIBERs OE vARIOus MATERIALS ARE UNITED WITH ADHESIVE MIxruRE's.

spcification of Letters Patent No. 1,559, dated April 24, 184.0.

T 0 all whom t may concern Be it known that I, THOMAS ROBINSON I/VILLIAMS, a citizen of the United States of America, late of Newport, Rhode Island, in the said United States, but now residing at No. 14 Lambs Buildings, Bunhill Row, in the city of London and Kingdom of England, gentleman, have invented or discovered a new and useful invention of a new method of combining, by means of machinery and adhesive Compositions, all kinds of fibrous materials such as cotton, silk, fiax, hemp, tow, fur, wool, hair, &c.-into manufactured articles, which may be applied to the purposes for which paper, pasteboard, millboard, papier mch, parchment, vellum, leather, woven fabrics, felt, floorcloth, tarpaulin, and the skins of anilnals are used; and I do hereby declare that the following is a full and exact description thereof.

This invention consists in a new method process or manner of combining fibrous materials so as to form sheets or pieces of materia-l commonly called or known by the name of artificial skins or other articles as hat bodies, forms or foundations of tea trays, boxes and various other articles which are or may be constructed of such materials by means of machinery and adhesive mixtures.

The fibrous materials are first partially separated or opened and suspended in the air and are then drawn upon, deposited or laid on woven wire gauze or perforated cylinders or sheets or forms of metal or wood or woven 'cloth of an open fabric or net work, such wire gauze or perforated plates or forms being of the requisite shape to suit the articles intended to be manufactured and which operation is effected by means of a partial exhaustion of the air underneath or onthe opposite side of the said woven wire gauze or other fabric or perforated plates or shapes, the fibrous materials being drawn upon and caused to be deposited over the same by the currents of air passing through the said wire gauze or perforated plates or forms which arrest thek fibers and thereby form a bat or sheet or other shape of the said fibrous material (generally upon its upper surface) according to the shape or form of the woven wire gauze or perforated plates or forms wherein or underneath which the exhaustion takes place. The so laid brous chines well known maybe combined andv connected together for effecting these purposes and I therefore wish it to be understood that I do not intend to confine myself to the precise arrangement and construction herein shown and I shall therefore refer in the present description to such machinery as I have found to answer well for making the materials as above stated into sheets or lengths or pieces' and then allude to the further modifications of this novel method of combining fibrous materials in the process of making hat bodies or other articles; and it may render the subject of this invention more clearly understood by observing that this new method or process of combining fibrous materials is in contra-distinction to the present mode of reducing fibrous materials into a state of' pulp suspended in water, as is done in the manufacture of paper, also to the process of spinning and weaving, as in woven fabrics, and also to the ordinary process of felt-ing, as furs, wools, hairs and other animal substances are usually felted together; and I shall now proceed to describe the manner in which the said invention is performed or carried into effect, referring to the annexed drawings, which are different views of machinery or apparatus .now in operation for making the said materials first insheets or lengths.

Figure l is a side elevation of the machinery or apparatus complete. Fig. 2 is a vertical section taken longitudinally through the same. Fig. 3 is a plan or horizontal view, the red arrows in all these figures indicating the passage of the air through the apparatus, vand the blue arrows that of the material under operation, and the black arrows the direction in which the various straps or bands and wheels or 'cylinders revolve or travel.

a, a, is the frame-work of the machinery,

which in this instance is formed of cast iron vclosely cased or paneled airtight ornearly so with wood E, b on all sides excepting theV end underneath the feeding apparatus, which is open for the admission of the atmosphere.

c, c, is the endless feeding belt upon which the fibrous material, as hemp,` tow, flax, refuse, silk, cotton, &c., is spread evenly by hand in the ordinary manner; The feeding belt in this instance is composed of two endless leather straps one at each side passing over the rollers ai, d. The leather straps are connected together by rods or bars of wood having spaces between them for the purpose of allowing any dirt or other extraneous matters mixed with the materials falling through the same without being carried into the machine. y i

6,6, are a pair of feeding rollers which take the fibrous material from the feeding belt and present it to the action of the teeth of the opening cylinder f (commonly called the devil cylinder The upper feeding roller is pressed upon the lower one by roller al, thereby causing that roller to re-V weighted-levers and rods at g, g, and these rollers are made to revolve by means of toothed pinions on their ends, aslshown inthe drawings, which 1s set 1n motion by a` strap or band It, passed over a pulley on the axle of the lower roller from any convenient part of theV machinery. From one of these pinions anintermediate toothed wheel gives motion to another wheel von the end of the volve andwith it the endless feeding belt. The axle o-f the devil cylinder f is mounted, turning in proper bearings in the framework and the cylinder is constructed of ironarms and'rims covered with blocks or staves of wood, through which are driven a great number of iron or steel spikes or teeth, which project from the periphery of the cylinder very near to the feeding rollers Ve, e. This cylinder has avery rapid rotatory motion givenl to it by means'of a band passed from the main driving-shaft over the pulley or rigger 71, on its axis.` The feeding. rollers bring Vthe material into the machine and the teeth of the cylinder separate 'or open the bers, throwing the material into the air, as. shown by 'the blue arrows, where meeting with the current of airzcaused by.

the partial vacuum produced within and under the receiving cylinder the loosened fibers are drawni onto and` depositedupon'- the Vperiphery of this cylinderin Vthe form of a thin layer, sheet, or bat of fibrous may The Vcylinder is formed of iron arms or rlms covered with an endless cloth `of woven wire gauze, perforated zlnc or iron or tin plates or other material or fabric which will allow of the passage of `the air throughV it but at the same time stop or arrest :the

fibrous substances mixed with or suspendedV in the air.V

The cylinder z' and the receiving rollers 7a, k, have a slow uniform rotatory motion given to them by means of a band passed from a rigger Zupon the auxiliary shaft to the rigger my, uponthe axle of which is a toothed pinion taking into gear with a toothed-wheel n; mounted upon theaxleof the lower receiving roller 7c, and upon this Y axle is a pinion taking into an intermediatef i wheel 0, the teeth of which `take into gear with another wheel 79 mounted upon the end of the axle of the cylinder z' and thereby give it a slow rotatory motion in unison with that of thereceiving rollers Zai/c". 'n i The partial vacuumor` exhaustion of `the air is produced withinv and under the cylinder i by means of the rotatory fan or exhauster at gor any other exhausting" ap`- paratus); but which in this instance for and exhaust t-he airthereinby meansiof a large fan or blower situate at one end of the trunk o-r in any` other convenient part of the building, a space around its center .as shown inv the drawing at u, u, being open to the trunk, and its' periphery open to' the atmosphere. i

- The extent of surface of the periphery ofthe cylinder i through.: which the air isl allowed to pass is determined `by the shield or partition s, @which is placed` as a guide for the currentrof'air therein and is packed against the cylinder z at t by means of leather orjother suitable substance in order to prevent `the-air and` fibrous `materials passingbetween it and the cylinder.;V The lower receiving rolleris "placed" nearly in i contact with the opposite side of the cylint der and does not require packing; i ,Y

`The receiving rollers 7a 7c, arev connected together `by means ofipinions on theirjends and theY upper one is pressed down upon its companion byV weightedlevers and rods K, K, and as they receive the-sheet, layer or bat of ibrous'materials from the cylinder@l they press it intoa, fmo-refcompact body and deliverit tothe apparatus, where itis to be saturatedwith pitch and tar `or `other resinous, vgelatinous `,orf-adhesivei coIn` positions, as shown "in,l the drawings at Figa. -Y

o 'v are two hollow-castiron cylinders or t i rollers' mountedlin; properjbearings in the framingwfw, fw, and are warmed when required -by'meansxofjhotiron heaters or in any other convenient mannen f A m* are troughs containing the adhesive mixture or composition, which is kept fluid by the radiant heat from the rollers; y is another trough containing the same composition for the purpose of supplying the lower one The lower cylinder v being partially immersed in theA composition carries up with it a suiiicient quantity to saturate the underside of the sheet or bat of fibrous materials and the composition in the trough or* being in direct contact with the sheet or bat vsaturates the upper side as it passes under it. The upper heated cvlinder is pressed upon the lower one by means of weighted levers at s, s, and as they revolve they not only squeeze or force the composition or adhesive mixture through the sheet or bat but also press out all that may be superfiuous which again runs into the lower cistern m'. vThese rollers also press the sheet or bat of fibrous materials so saturated into a thinner or more compact body and the composition immediately cooling retains t-he fibers in that state and as the sheet of material cools it may be cut into any convenient sizes for the purposes required or continued onward into succeeding operations to be afterward described. I should here remark that the adhesive mixtures generally used in this part of the process is abo-ut three parts of pitch or rosin with about one part of tar, to which is added perhaps a thirtieth of oil. or tallow, but the proportions necessarily vary for the different purposes for which it may be intended.

The cylinders i), o, are made to revolve by means of a band passed from a rigger on the auxiliary shaft to the pulley l placed upon the axle 2 which is mounted in the frame work 3. Upon this shaft is a toothed pinion l taking into the wheel 5 uponthe end of the axle of the lower roller o, the upper one being turned by a pair of pinions upon the ends of the shafts of the rollers.

Having now described the means of carrying this invention into eiect in the making of sheets or lengths of fibrous materials which are applicable to the sheathing of ships, covering the roofs of buildings, floorcloth, packing for the chairs of rails for railways7 tarpaulins and other purposes I will proceed to decide another application of this invention foi` the manufacture of millboards or boards for bookbinding, making boxes and packing for flanch joints in pipes and joints for tanks and machinery in general. For this purpose I make use of an additional machine, Fig. 5, appended to that last described through which the endless sheet after leaving the pressing rollers o is conducted over the roller I) (receiving a motion from the band c) and from this it descends into the cistern D, which is filled to the line Z with a composition of weak size mixed with paste and clay in differentproportions (according to the material required) through which it is made to pass over and under the rollers e, c, c, by the drawing of the two larger geared rollers E E which are covered with a coarse woolen or hair cloth and gently press out- (by means of the weighted levers 7, f,) so much of the superfluous composition as may be wished.

It is then continued over the roller g and is afterward cut off into various lengths and hung up to dry it, being finished when dry by the usual methods of glazing or finishing millboards or cardboards by rolling or pressing. rIhe rollers E E receive their mo-t-ion by a band from an auxiliary shaft under the floor or in any convenient situation. The advantage of thus supersaturating the previous sheet with this composition is to prevent the action of heat upon the so manufactured boards.

The forms may be made of any perfo-rated substance of suliicient strength but I prefer them of copper, zinc or wire-gauze.

Having thus fully described my method of combining by means of machinery and adhcsive compo-sitions all kinds of fibrous materials for the manufacture of various articles I do hereby declare that I do not claim the forming of a bat or sheet from fibrous materials in the manner set forth; nor do I claim the machinery emploved for the saturating of such a bat or sheet of fibrous materials with resinous and other substances; but

Vhat I do claim as of my invention and desire to secure by Letters Patent is- The so combining and arranging the machinery employed substantially in the man ner herein set forth as that the processes of# forming the bat and of saturating the same with the different compounds shall be simultaneously and consecutively effected, so as to form sheets or lengths of fibrous materials applicable to various purposes.

In witness whereof I the said THOMAS V ROBINSON I/VILLIAMS have hereunto set my hand and seal this twelfth day of February, in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty.

THOS. R. WILLIAMS. Witnesses:

JOHN CLARKE, GEORGE HARRIS. 

